Welcome to my first blog post ever! Isn't this exciting? Anyways, instead of just promoting my music,
I thought I’d also blog about my opinions and observations that I experience
and think about that’s related to the Hip-Hop culture and start a conversation
with ya’ll. I may also blog about other
stuff that’s not related to Hip-Hop.
Before I get started, this blog is of my own opinion and my opinion
shouldn’t be substituted for your opinion.
If you have one, post it in the comments section. Let’s get a dialogue going.
HERE’S THE SITUATION:
Anyways, the first topic I want to get off of my chest is
something that I’ve seen a lot lately as I’ve browsed through the internet. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been on the
internet too much lately (and I’m sure you’ve heard something similar outside
the internet as well) but I’ve seen a lot of “Hip-Hop fans” talk about how there
is a distinct difference between “rap music” and “Hip-Hop music.” I’ve also seen these “Hip-Hop fans” refer to
certain rapper’s music as “real” rap as opposed to “mainstream garbage” or what
have you.
Not to mention that if I had a nickel for every time somebody
used Lil’ Wayne as a negative comeback in response to a YouTube comment that is
not agreed upon by the majority of “real” rap fans, in response to a “real” rap
music video , I wouldn’t be blogging about this silly issue to you know now,
would I?
Basically, there are a group of people who think that one
aspect of Hip-Hop music is quantitatively better than another aspect of Hip-Hop
music and people who don’t agree with their opinion are not “real” rap fans and
should “go listen to lil wayne.” I
refer to these close-minded “fans” as Hip-Hop Elitists.
I’ve also seen a variation of Hip-Hop Elitists who believe
that old school rap music was when Hip-Hop was truly “alive” and the majority
of new school rap music killed it (And chooses to ignore the music that agrees
with their close-minded idealism in order to save face). They also like to compare old school rappers
to new school rappers as well and whine about how Hip-Hop is dead. I like to call them Hip-Hop Past-Ers (HHPE),
or Hip-Hop’s Grumpy Grandpas (HHGGs).
MY OPINION:
I have no idea where people got the idea that one aspect of
Hip-Hop music is “better” than the other, but I’m not going to start pointing
fingers and naming names either because I’m a gentleman.
I mean, I just don’t get it.
Why can’t I have the freedom of listening to Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like”
without having to be concerned about not being called a “real” Hip-Hop fan?
And to be honest, I don’t give a shit either. If I want to listen to something, I’m going
to listen to it. Sure, listening to
meaningful songs is nice, but I’m the type of person who can’t listen to the same
type of songs every single day without having to balance it out with “mainstream
garbage.” That’s just who I am as a
person. I’m human and I have moods (with
certain types of music to match).
As a matter of fact, I willing to bet many of you once upon a time listened to the radio and were once bumping the latest mainstream rap music craze.
It’s as if these Hip-Hop Elitists expect every rapper to be
a humanitarian. REALITY CHECK: Not every rapper is, wants to be, or should be a
humanitarian!
Sure, it’s nice to know that your favorite rapper is doing a
charity concert for the starving children in Africa, but you have to
acknowledge that everybody is a unique individual with their own goals.
Not to mention that the commercial exposure of Hip-Hop music
has turned the culture into a brand (Which isn’t all bad). Hip-Hop music has also evolved into
entertainment. And that’s just the way
it is.
Sometimes, you have to accept change and move on.
I may be stretching things here, but I believe the
paradoxical part of all of this is that we may actually NEED these “bad”
rappers. I mean, if there were no “bad”
rappers, who would be the “good” rappers?
Think about it.
Let's take the balanced approach.
If every “bad” rapper went away, Hip-Hop music would just not be fun anymore. I mean, who can we rely on to be the punch-line of every Hip-Hop joke? The funny part is, we would still have this competitive mindset and still rate who’s the best and who’s not. There STILL would be bad rappers even if there were only “good” rappers alive. In my opinion, without the entertainment aspect of Hip-Hop music, the culture would be dying out faster than you think. The entertainment industry helped Hip-Hop grow and become international. And yes, good and bad consequences have been the result of this growth.
Apparently, this is when Hip-Hop music became commercialized.
In conclusion, I get that Hip-Hop is a masculine,
competitive culture. That’s one of the
things I love about Hip-Hip. It’s what
gives it life. It’s what keeps it alive. But this senseless hate that’s going on is
what’s killing Hip-Hop music to me. So
next time, if you don’t have anything nice to say, I suggest you do everybody a
favor and keep it to yourself. If you
don’t like a certain type of music, keep it moving, but saying that someone is
beneath you just because they don’t agree with your taste in music just makes
you look like an arrogant asshole.
Naturally, birds of a feather flock together. Music is music, and there is no quantifiable
way of ranking/measuring it no matter what your opinion about it is.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be listening to some Drake. Why? Because I FEEL like it.
"Is this what ya want?"
P.S.
Make sure to support the artists who you feel really deserves
it in any way you can. Good music shall
always prevail.
So what do you think?
Do you agree or disagree with my sentiments?
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